The present invention relates to comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (2DGC or GCxGC). In particular, the invention relates to 2DGC or GCxGC that achieves a reproducible chromatogram.
Two-dimensional gas chromatography is the result of combining two separation columns in gas chromatography. The effluent from the first column is periodically injected/transferred into the second column which separates the components of the effluent by a different criteria than that of the first column. Peak crowding/overlapping limits the usefulness of traditional chromatography. One way of handling the problem of peak crowding is overlapping comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography. In this set-up, the effluent from the first column is injected into the second column in a series of pulses by a modulator located between the columns. The modulator periodically stops and starts the movement of the effluent from the first column into the second column. The effluent from the second column is fed to a detector for data acquisition of the constituents of the effluent.